Dismissal proceedings against suspended South Yorkshire Police chief constable David Crompton have reached a new stage.

A scrutiny hearing with the Police and Crime Panel, made up of South Yorkshire councillors and independent members, will now be held to decide whether the police chief should retire or resign.

Mr Crompton was suspended on April 27, the day after the jury in the Hillsborough inquests found the 96 victims were unlawfully killed and fans were not to blame.

South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Dr Alan Billings said he was suspended due to an “erosion of public trust and confidence” following the inquests.

Dr Billings then wrote to Sir Tom Winsor, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary, explaining his proposal and seeking his views.

Mr Crompton was invited to provide representations.

On Monday Dr Billings notified the Police and Crime Panel of his intention to continue with the Section 38 process, calling for the retirement or resignation of Mr Crompton.

A private scrutiny hearing, organised by Rotheram Metropolitan Borough Council’s democratic services department, will be held within six weeks and the panel will then give Dr Billings a written recommendation.

Fans, police and an ambulance on the pitch in the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster

Dr Billings will then make a decision on whether he accepts the panel’s recommendation and can make the final call on whether or not to call for Mr Crompton’s retirement or resignation.

Families of the Hillsborough victims had called for Mr Crompton’s immediate resignation after the inquest verdicts, which found the 96 were unlawfully killed and the fans were blameless.

Shadow Home Secretary Andy Burnham told MPs, during a House of Commons debate, that South Yorkshire Police had gone back on its 2012 public apology following the release of the Hillsborough Independent Panel report and engaged in an “adversarial battle” at the fresh inquests in Warrington.

Mr Crompton, who was due to retire in November anyway, was forced to apologise in February 2013 after it emerged he had accused Hillsborough campaigners of lying in an email.

In his email he wrote: “One thing is certain – the Hillsborough Campaign for Justice will be doing their version... in fact their version of certain events has become ‘the truth even though it isn’t’.”